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René Tavares welcomes us in his atelier with his genuine friendliness. On the walls filled with works in progress, painting is in the foreground. For the Santomean artist, born in 1983 and living as well as working in Lisbon, having studied in Dakar was one of the best schools of his life and for African art, where he understood his own pictorial eye. Tavares also studied photography in Rennes, France. Recently, the artist was named Africa’s Most Influential New Artistic Talent, at the 2018 edition of the FNB Art Joburg, in Johannesburg, South Africa. In the interview, we talked about his artistic journey between São Tomé and the world, the new generations of post-independence artists, and the cultural and artistic dynamics in the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe. The importance of tchiloli and theatricality in his work. It was also possible to understand how, in the project “In memory we trust”, notions such as tradition, memory, and miscegenation circulate. With “Estado Novo do Atlântico”, a project for the EDP Foundation Art Grand Prize, of which he was a finalist, he closes the migration cycle.

Interviewer: Marta Lança

Video and editing: Bruno Morais Cabral

Translation and Subtitling: Érica Almeida Postiço.